Riverhouse

Developer Seth Brown called it "a seriously green project" in an interview this week with the Brooklyn Eagle ; his company, Aspen Equities, plans to complete a 5-story, 8-unit condominium development at 580 Sterling Place in Prospect Heights sometime this summer. Although the project is not pursuing LEED or other third-party certification, it will feature a significant number of green design features: low-VOC paints and sealants, tankless gas hot water heaters, low-E windows, energy efficient kitchen and bathroom lighting, Energy Star appliances, bamboo flooring, dual flush toilets, programmable thermostats, and wind-powered common areas. Each apartment also offers private outdoor space as well as 9- or 10-foot ceiling heights and bicycle storage space.

We wrote about the Mercy Corps Action Center to End World Hunger earlier this year; the $5.4 million, 4000-square-foot interactive education facility is set to open this Thursday, October 16 (which is World Food Day) within community space at the Sheldrake Organization's Riverhouse condominiums. Designed by Edwin Schlossberg’s ESI Design, the Center is seeking a LEED Platinum rating from USGBC.

The Center's mission is to both educate and inspire visitors to take action against poverty and hunger. Four "training towers" provide case studies from different countries - conflict in Afghanistan, government in Indonesia, global warming in Niger, and land use in Guatemala. Benches made from wood reclaimed from houses destroyed during Hurricane Katrina lace the Center's interiors, while Tina Fey hosted video provides an overview of the Center's offerings. Visitors are encouraged to take action that requires either one minute (emailing themselves information about how to get involved) or one day (hosting a dinner fundraiser).

Last Thursday, I spent an afternoon out of the office and took some construction progress photos of a number of the LEED projects that we've presented here at gbNYC. I started out on 42nd Street at SJP Properties' LEED Gold hopeful 11 Times Square before heading downtown to Battery Park City's Riverhouse (seeking LEED Platinum) and Goldman Sachs Tower (Gold). We haven't written about it yet (we will) but I finished up with some shots of Related's Robert A.M. Stern-designed Harrison condominium development on 76th and Amsterdam which is aiming for Silver.

It might be a bit early to start looking back on what has been a truly watershed year for the green movement at large, and green building in particular, but here's our stab at the top five green buildings in New York City that either received a LEED rating or were completed during the course of 2007. Note that not all of the buildings on our list actually sought certification, and some have yet to receive the designation from USGBC. There's nothing scientific to our methodology here, but we've selected projects that we think were important for a unique reason. Still, the real winner this year was the Big Apple itself, which saw an increasing number of green buildings break ground across a wide variety of sectors. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts- or if you think we missed a particularly deserving project- in the comments below.

#1: Queens Botanical Garden Visitor's & Administration Center

The Visitor's Center at the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing tops our list as the first LEED Platinum building in New York City (once USGBC officially confers the designation). Designed by BKSK Architects to reflect the surrounding natural landscape of the Botanical Garden, the Center is an excellent demonstration of design excellence intersecting with sustainability. The project officially opened to the public at the end of September.

#2: New York Times Tower

The Hearst Tower, which sits just under a mile north of the New York Times' new headquarters, grabbed most of the green headlines along Eighth Avenue this year, certainly in part because it earned LEED Gold and the Times Tower chose not to seek a LEED rating. Still, Renzo Piano's new headquarters for the Times is a sustainable building under any standard, and is symbolic of the wave of green construction that's gripped Eighth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen, from the Times Tower and neighboring 11 Times Square, which will seek LEED Silver on the other side of 41st Street, all the way up to the Hearst Tower on 57th Street, as well as recent news regarding LEED Gold 20 Times Square which will soon take shape across the street at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The New York Times moved into its new home over the summer; its public lobby is definitely worth checking out.

#3: Morrisania Homes

The Morrisania Homes, an affordable housing development in the Bronx, achieved a notable first in October when it earned New York State's first LEED for Homes ("LEED-H") certification from USGBC.